Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Sun Devils vs. Hurricanes in '08?

The Miami Hurricanes need an opponent to line up against to open up their 2008 campaign. Why not have our Arizona State Sun Devils travel to Miami as the Hurricanes play their first home game at Pro Player Stadium? Right now, we are currently set to play Northern Arizona on August 30, 2008. Why not just give Northern Arizona whatever money they were going to get in television rights and go to Miami and get a huge payday from the Hurricanes? How big of a national story would it be if Dennis Erickson came back to Miami to face the team with which he won national championships in 1989 and 1991? Besides, the Hurricanes have always been gracious hosts:

If we went to Miami in week 1 of the 2008 season, our schedule would look like this:

That would easily be the #1 toughest schedule in the nation, and we can make it a home and home series in 2009 by kicking Idaho State off the schedule. There is no reason to play these cupcake games early on in the season. I'm tired of seeing two home games early on in the season every year where we easily win by 30 points, and then lose once we play stiff competition, like against LSU and USC in 2005 after we had walked all over Temple and Northwestern in our first two games. This year, we have 3 cakewalks, with a depleted SJSU, a rebuilding Colorado and a team trying to find its identity in San Diego State. In 2008, we're most likely going to be a top program with Rudy Carpenter back for his senior season, a very experienced Keegan Herring and Shaun Dewitty in the backfield, and an established receiving corps of Michael Jones, Kyle Williams, Chris McGaha and Kerry Taylor, with T.J. Simpson beginning to establish himself. If Rudy stays for his senior season, we should be unstoppable on offense.

The cynic says, "What happens if we get pummeled in Miami?" I say, IT DOESN'T MATTER! The benefits outweigh the costs big time. Win or lose, going into a hostile environment like Miami is going to increase our chances of succeeding when we play Georgia at home and for the road games at Cal and USC. Let's follow up this season's 9 or 10 win campaign with an exciting opening game road trip to Miami!

Playing Miami is a great idea...When you're not playing Georgia in the same year!! That's about as smart as Mike Vick's dog fighting operation. They would have to face Miami, USC, Cal and Georgia in the same season. Not to mention programs on the rise like OSU, UofW and Oregon. The only people that think playing Miami next year is a good idea would be the ABC Sports Execs.